To whom on the W3C Patent Policy Working Group it may concern:
I am very concerned about the recent Patent Policy Framework draft,
which could allow
W3C members to charge royalty fees for technologies included in
world-wide-web standards.
In particular, I strongly object to the inclusion of a RAND (reasonable
and non-discriminatory)
licensing option in the proposed policy. I believe that the exclusive
use of a RF
(royalty-free) licensing model is in the best interests of the Internet
community, and that
RAND licensing would always necessarily exclude some would-be
implementors,
especially among open source and free software developers.
I applaud the W3C for its tradition of providing open-source reference
implementations
and its work to promote a wide variety of interoperable implementations
of its open
standards. The W3C can best continue its work of "leading the Web to its
full potential"
by continuing this tradition, and saying no to RAND licensing.
Sincerely,
The Very Rev. Tony Begonja
Presbyter-Priest, Webmaster, Author
2521 McDearmon Street
Sachse, Texas 75048-3713
tbegonja@earthlink.net